Current Affair 1:

UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP)

 

The UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), founded in 1975 following the International Hydrological Decade (1965-1974), is the only intergovernmental cooperation programme of the UN system dedicated to water research and management, and related education and capacity development.

It addresses national, regional, and global water challenges, by supporting the development of sustainable and resilient societies.

The IHP’s just started ninth phase (IHP-IX, 2022-2029) puts science to action for a Water Secure World, in a Changing Environment.

For the new ninth phase, the IHP will focus on five interrelated Priority Areas: Scientific Research and innovation; Water education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution including Sustainability; Bridging the data-knowledge gap; Inclusive water management under conditions of global change; Water governance based on science for mitigation, adaptation, and resilience.

HP Intergovernmental Council

The planning, definition of priorities, and supervision of the execution of Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) are ensured by the Intergovernmental Council. The Council is composed of 36 UNESCO Member States elected by the General Conference of UNESCO at its ordinary sessions held every two years.

 

Current Affair 2:

Permanent Normal Trade Relations

 

Why in News?

US and other members of the Group of Seven (G7) will revoke Russia's "Permanent Normal Trade Relations (Pntr)" status to punish Russia for war over Ukraine. The move would pave the way for the US to impose tariffs on a wide range of Russian goods, heightening pressure on an economy on the brink of deep recession.

What is PNTR?

The status of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) is a legal designation in the United States for free trade with a foreign nation.

In the United States, the name was changed from Most Favored Nation (MFN) to PNTR in 1998.

Current Affair 3:

Extent of pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating world’s rivers

 

A new study led by the University of York’s Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry has found that pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating the world’s rivers to a greater extent.

The researchers studied rivers in over half of the world’s countries — with rivers in 36 of these countries having never previously been monitored for pharmaceuticals.

With their latest study, the researchers found that:

• Pharmaceutical pollution is contaminating water on every continent.
• Strong correlations between the socioeconomic status of a country and higher pollution of pharmaceuticals in its rivers (with lower-middle-income nations the most polluted).
• High levels of pharmaceutical pollution was most positively associated with regions of high median age as well as high local unemployment and poverty rates,
• The most polluted countries and regions of the world are the ones that have been researched the least (namely sub-Saharan Africa, South America and parts of southern Asia).
• The activities most associated with the highest levels of pharmaceutical pollution included rubbish dumping along river banks, inadequate wastewater infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the dumping of the contents of residual septic tanks into rivers.
• The study revealed that a quarter of the sites contained contaminants (such as sulfamethoxazole, propranolol, ciprofloxacin and loratadine) at potentially harmful concentrations.
• The researchers hope that by increasing the monitoring of pharmaceuticals in the environment, they can develop strategies to limit the effects potentially caused by the presence of pollutants.
• The study included noteworthy rivers such as the Amazon, Mississippi, Thames and the Mekong. Water samples were obtained from sites spanning from a Yanomami Village in Venezuela, where modern medicines are not used, to some of the most populated cities on the planet, such as Delhi, London, New York, Lagos, Las Vegas, and Guangzhou.

The study used ‘predicted no adverse effect concentrations (PNECs)’ to determine where there may be a risk for adverse effects (such as toxicity). If the team measured a concentration in the environment above the PNEC, then there was potential for organisms living there to be adversely affected by the pharmaceutical. This can manifest in many ways largely dependent on what the pharmaceutical is, what organism is being exposed and at what concentration. Examples can include disrupted reproductive capabilities, altered behaviour or physiology and even changes in heart rate.

Current Affair 4:

Watershed size plays major role in filtering pollutants in river

 

One of the important functions of a river is to remove pollutants that can end up in the water, like lawn fertilisers and harmful bacteria, before that water reaches sensitive downstream ecosystems such as estuaries and oceans. New research from the University of New Hampshire found that watershed size plays a major role in a river network’s ability to do this work.

What is a watershed? A watershed is the land area that drains to a common body of water, such as a stream, lake, bay, or even the ocean. They provide drinking water, habitats for wildlife, soil to grow our food, and locations for fishing, boating and swimming. We all live in a watershed.

The study was published in the journal, ‘Nature Communications’.

Just like the human body’s circulatory system moves blood, carries nutrients and filters waste, the planet’s river networks perform very similar functions. However, it is not well-known what controls how much pollutant filtration rivers can do, or whether it occurs primarily in small versus large rivers.

The researchers found that when the watershed area being drained by the river network increases, the rate at which rivers filter pollution doesn’t just increase at a linear rate–it increases even faster. They described what they uncovered about the watershed size and river function as super linear scaling, saying it occurs because larger rivers contribute disproportionately to the pollution-filtering function of the entire network of aquatic ecosystems, which can include lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands.

To keep as much pollution as possible out of estuaries and oceans, the research indicated that it is more important to manage land use and mitigate nonpoint source pollution–like runoff carrying fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and toxic chemicals–in smaller watersheds, which are less able to filter pollutants than larger watersheds. It is also important to mitigate nonpoint pollution in parts of the watershed that are closer to an estuary or coastal area, where the system will have less of a chance to filter the pollutants before it reaches those critical areas.

Current Affair 5:

India biggest importer of arms in 2017-2021

 

India may be pushing for ‘atmanirbharta (indigenous development)’ in defence equipment — the central government earmarked 68 per cent of the capital budget for 2022-23 for domestic manufacturing industries — but the country remains the largest importer of arms globally, a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has shown.

However, according to SIPRI’s Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2021 — published this month — India’s total volume of imports fell by 21 per cent from 2012-16, which could be a reflection of the push to manufacture arms and weapons systems indigenously.

Russia was India’s largest supplier of arms in both 2012-16 and 2017-21. However, the volume of India’s imports from Russia fell by 47 per cent between these two periods.

Now data on exports,

 

<< Previous Next >>